Essenes

our last desert day, and only desert for the first part

We were in Essene country

The Essenes are priests but see them as rebel Saducees

They actually tried to live according to the text:

A voice cries out:

“Clear a road through the desert for Adonai!
Level a highway in the ‘Aravah for our God!

Live obediently in the desert, memorize the text, copy the text

true change - Shuva = repentance

These are the dead scroll people

40.000 fragments only 10-15% translated 

most copied books: Deuteronomy, Leviticus, Isaiah, Psalms

Jesus quotes most often Deuteronomy, then Leviticus, Isaiah Psalms

coincidence? even the sermon on the mount is Essene style

Also John the Baptist shows up very close to this place
and calls the people to Shuva: Repent!
He even sounds Essene 

The Essenes practiced Mikvah, at different times of the day

cover head, heart, hand and feet with water to rededicate

to be obedient

But there is a huge difference between Jesus and the Essenes

they hated Gentiles, wicked and sinners

Jesus included them

The Son of Man came, eating freely and drinking wine — so they say, ‘Aha! A glutton and a drunkard! A friend of tax-collectors and sinners!’ Well, the proof of wisdom is in the actions it produces.”

For the same reason John the Baptist was likely not Essene either

but on many issues they sound the same

Essene practiced baptism

they had a communal meal

missions was important

They dug tunnels through very hard rock to get living water to this place

Todd told us about living with the line:

think of an issue like premarital sex as a line

you can approach it in different ways.

some will try to see how close they can get to the line without crossing

or: stay very far away from the line, this is the Essene way

Especially young people need to see their mentors live as Essenes

everyone who lives in Shephelah needs Essenes in their lives
people who dare to live their faith, even if is costs them,
who stay away from temptations try to live a righteous life

Where are the Essenes of today? are there any?

people that emerge themselves in the text

who live and breath the text

the Essenes hid their scrolls in caves like this one:

We had a choice to go up all the way or go down and explore Qumran

I went up but when it looked like an endless

"one more hill"

I went down with some of the others.

Mainly because the day before I'd run into a "wall"

on hindsight, the morning devos where about regret

regret for not giving it your all

wow, these devotions sure were made for me

I did regret not giving this extra push

half of our group made it all the way up